Dark Skies
by Vanto
Summary: AU. 300 years after the fall of Vaatu, one of his underlings, a powerful dark spirit, plan the demise of the new Avatar by using one of his pawns, Qav. Alongside another dark spirit, he must travel trough the world and gain enough power to face the avatar. First fanfic. Michael Dante DiMartino, Bryan Konietzko and Nickelodeon owns Avatar.
1. Chapter 1

It was dark.

Yes, dark was probably the only word those who lived in it could use to describe this cold, haunting place, after a while, they even started to use the world "Hell", to describe it.

They weren't far from the main thing: giant volcanoes touched the red sky, erupting green lava sometimes. A strange, yellow liquid was flowing trough the valley, killing whatever dared to swim (fortunately, nobody ever tried to take a swim, probably because the remains of the remains of unfortunate, less savvy ramblers were floating). A black, thick smoke, coming from holes in the ground, blinded wanderers, allowing them to accidentally throw themselves in whatever fatal trap was lying ahead in a fit of panic.

While some tried to climb to escape on some hills made of rock to avoid the smoke and the river, they were soon killed by other vagrants seeking a refuge (and less then thrilled when hearing the word "sharing") or the daily eruption of the nearby volcano. Some desperate inhabitants eventually formed squads of some sort, feeding on whatever they found which couldn't kill them, in this quest for survival, very few squads survived and only a group made of the strongest could live to see another day in this hellish landscape.

However, it was futile: Every victory was pyrrhic at the very least and they knew their strength couldn't save them from oblivion, even the most prideful ones were forced to admit they were just delaying a gruesome end and only a very few dark spirits tried to survive, the remaining ones merely tried to take other with them in death.

Effectively, those who lived in this place were Dark Spirit, forced to live in this place after the fall of their leader, Vaatu, at the hand of Wan, the "Avatar". Using the power of Raava, the leader of the light spirits, he eventually managed to defeat the starfish after efforts and trapped Vaatu in the Tree of Time, the surviving dark spirits retreated back in their world, while it was highly dangerous for the dark spirits, light spirits died immediately upon entering.

Having heard rumours about the survival of some of Vaatu's generals (powerful dark spirits with unique abilities), the light spirits took the decision to destroy the portals leading to this world, directly in the human realm, after all, their own world would probably consume them after some time, even the higher ups, if they survived, wouldn't last long.

To be honest, Zalo himself was pretty sure they were dead a long time ago, Vaatu himself wasn't able to defeat Wan, the weaker generals, while very powerful compared to your average dark spirit, didn't had any chances of winning if they ever took on Wan, let alone flee.

Despite his pessimistic attitude, he was amongst those who tried to survive, he knew there was a way out of this atrocious place and every single cell of his being was devoted to finding this famous way out, he was utilising all his ruthlessness to approach his goal, killing lesser spirits and receiving protection from the ones he couldn't defeat before betraying them, most of the time, however, he avoided any form of contact.

But recently, something other then survival was primordial to him.

If Zalo was so ruthless (even more then normal), it was because he recently got hold of a kind of feeling, as if someone was giving him instructions, he saw a place in his dream, recently, a rocky hill just like the other but without any volcanoes in sight and he could swear he heard _something _calling him in the darkness, upon waking up, he suddenly knew the direction of this hill.

Since life was meaningless in this land and nobody could help him (as if they wanted), he figured out he might as well believe in some vague nonsense in his head and go for it, life couldn't get worse in this hell and while determined to survive, death would be a gift in this land of darkness.

Something, he has a vague souvenir of the human realm, he roamed in these green hills and blended in their blue liquid, catching a few of them. They were tasty and usually came in size; he usually took the bigger ones and merely killed the little humans, or let them flee if he was in a good mood.

Blending in was a bit difficult later on; after all, he was a height feel tall green squid with height large tentacles nearly as long as a little tree, while he was himself bigger then five fully grown humans in line. He wasn't a general but he sure was tough for a mook, of course, he was still no match for Wan and higher graded light spirits, but underestimating him was still an error.

This is perhaps because of his toughness that he was able to survive this long, along with his ability to blend in, avoiding the unwelcome company of stronger dark spirits.

After a long walk across the volcanoes, the dry land, the acid river and many, many other dangerous things, he finally found a part of the land he was sure nobody ever walked across, and boy, he felt so prideful when he set his tentacles on this soil.

There was a giant hole right before his eyes, with a lake big lake in it. The lake wasn't made of acid like he every other lake in this godforsaken world, it looked more like water, a stark contrast with the red sky. Also, they weren't any volcanoes nearby, Zalo briefly tried to pinch himself a bit before realising he couldn't.

However, what surprised him the most was the rocky hill in the middle of the lake, it looked exactly like in his dreams, he was pondering about how a decent place like this could exit until he sensed the energy which make him come here the squid quickly approached the lake, checking is back, fearing another spirit might have followed him.

By approaching, the Dark Spirit noticed soon they weren't any way to descend, like a stairs or something.

But the fall wasn't going to scare Zalo; he travelled to reach this point, carefully avoiding his fellow dark spirits, volcanoes, smokes, acid and plenty of other things. Being scared by some liquid was now impossible for the squid (except if said liquid can melt him in less the three seconds, of course).

The squid jumped and quickly fell in the water, what followed the fall was probably the happiest, most glorious thing he ever experienced in 300 years.

It was REALLY water ! Zalo felt some kind of empowerment has he surfaced and took his time to briefly play in the water, some may call it childish but he hasn't been on water since the defeat of Vaatu, three centuries ago. He was feeling reborn, as if nothing could stop him in his path now. After 7 minutes of playing around, he finally started to swim towards the island, using his tentacles as some kind of rotor to move quickly in the water, there was nothing else on the water but since this place was never explored before, this wasn't surprising.

Upon arriving, the squid started to creep toward the pillar; he was ready to climb it until he noticed a greatly surprising detail witch startled him for a few seconds.

A door was carved on the rock.

It wasn't possible at all, most spirits merely climbed on top of the hill before digging and making a room, carefully replacing the rocks behind them to avoid unwelcome visit from another wanderer. While the guy located in this place had all the time possible, it was still highly surprising.

The door was made in a relatively sophisticated way, looking like the door of those buildings wealthy humans build to impress other wealthy humans. The spirit was either highly intelligent or he was just smug. Zalo quickly opened the door and entered, before closing it.

A few boogies were the only light in the dark corridor the squid was currently standing in. He was starting to have some kind of anxiety down his throat, bad sign, the guy who lived in this place was probably observing him and there was a big chance he was currently planned on eating him. The corridor was large enough for the rather large spirit to crawl without being handicapped, he quickly opened another door and was standing in front of a few stairs.

Ignoring his quick heartbeat, the dark spirit started to climb the stairs while looking behind him in a regular manner, he was growing more and more anxious as he climbed but he couldn't go back, the power was closer, he could feel it ! He wasn't in control of his body anymore; it was just progressing towards the power, towards the trap, towards the jaws of the guy in charge of the place.

The squid quickly took rid of his fear; it was stupid to fear an attack. He was perfectly aware of his surroundings and his tentacles could protect him easily, and in this cramped place, he could easily grab and tear apart anything.

His confidence restored, Zalo opened yet another door, he was sure the source of whatever attracted him was there but he only saw a large table, he hesitated for a few seconds and crawled towards it, maybe the table was going to speak ? Or it was going to give him meals forever ? Or the food was going to attack him ?

No, there wasn't any food on the table, and since he was hungry, he was a bit disappointed. Then, the door violently closed.

"I cannot BELIVE IT !"

Quickly spinning around, the squid was confused when he saw nothing but the closed door, pressing himself against a corner, Zalo started to watch the room, rising his tentacles for protection.

"Someone came ! It's magnificent ! The best day in my life !"

"What the… SHOW YOURSELF!"

"But I'm here !"

A tiny butterfly was standing on the wall behind the squid, the spirit quickly turned around and smashed it with a tentacle, laughing, Zalo continued his brutal assault on the wall.

"Rude."

The dark spirit opened his eyes in amazement, the butterfly just took ten hits but he didn't even moved, there wasn't any traces of impact on the wall ! The tentacles were usually strong enough to destroy big human vehicles in one blow ! However, fear took the place of surprise in the eyes of Zalo when the butterfly grew to be at least of his size.

"Mine, mine. What a unpleasant surprise. You attack me, just tell me why I shouldn't kill you right here ?"

"Well… hum… I came here and you can't afford to wait again ?"

"Yes ! Good point !"

The butterfly approached and patted the squid on the head, his big eyes were full of genuine joy but Zalo still feared for his life.

"My name is Jakui ! Pretty unusual name, huh ? Yeah, I know, I'm kinda special, y a know."

"I just noticed."

The butterfly pointed a chair, the squid merely sat on it, too fearful to attempt anything the insect would saw as potentially offensive, and he seemed to be quite strange.

"It's VVEERRYY nice of you to come in ! You see, I kinda dropped in this world after Vaatu's defeat, I'm one of his generals, so I tried to counter-attack a bit before fleeing in this world."

"A GENERAL ?!"

"I just said it but that's right, you can shout it. I like it when someone shout, it's been a long time since I've been screamed at by Vaatu."

The squid stumbled a bit. A general ? He was lucky to be again after attacking him. He took his breath before speaking again and observing his interlocutor. He looked like your average butterfly but was constantly changing colors (his head, at least), his body and wings were covered in some armor (golden for the body, silver of the wings), same things for the legs. The most disturbing detail was probably his human mouth.

"So… how did you found this place ? It's a lot more pleasant then the volcanoes or the acid."

"Nah, you were just too focused on killing each other. I just made my little place in this and send a message to a random guy ! And YOU are the lucky one, Happy ?!"

The butterfly flew to the other side of the table and looked at Zalo with a big smile on his face, the dark spirit couldn't figure out if it was just your normal, happy smile or if it was predatory, given the personality of the insect, it was probably the former.

"So… what is my task ? I can live with you ? You said you were alone, you searched… company ?"

"Ho HELL NAW!"

The butterfly suddenly flew towards a hidden wall and destroyed it with his wings, Zalo just follow him while cursing himself for entering the goddamn castle.

He suddenly froze in place when he saw a portal leading to a dark place, Jakui quickly grabbed him by one tentacle and placed him in front of the portal, he could see rocks on the other side, it was probably a cave.

"You'll be able to stay here but… let's say you'll have to give me some help…"

"Help you ? A general ?"

"Yes ! You see, I'm a large Dark Spirit, so if I go to the world of the fleshy punks, I'm going to get busted in a second… but not you ! You are just a mook ! You won't be spotted by the light spirits and you'll able to do this task !"

Zalo felt a bit insulted by the comment of the insect but at the very second he started his quest to the "castle", he was already under his control.

"You see, I'm kinda unique because I can morph dead humains into dark spirits ! And they're bigger ! Stronger ! Faster ! And they can even change the colors of their eyes ! Like me !"

Jaiku demonstrated the latter by changing his eyes colors from red, to blue, to yellow, to pink.

"Well, this is a fantastic power ! Lord Vaatu should've let you use it !"

"Nah, it's not that simple, really. The human must have a very dark heart, like… no positive emotions, the worst jerk EVER ! And THEN ! I can't create many and they start a bit weak. Weak like… Your level."

The insult was grave but he ignored it, his life is more important then his pride.

"But ! It can bend !"

"Bend elements ? Like the avatar ?"

"No, it can only bend ONE element. And the dark spirit will only bend if he was a bender in his human life, and only the element he used before !"

"God, they can bend now ?"

"Yes, but they're not a treat to any of us. But the power of the bending will be drastically augmented when the human become a dark spirit !"

"So… Hum, you want me to go into the real world, find an douchebag, kill him and bring back his corpse so you can transform it into a dark spirit ?"

"Yes but you just need to knock him out, it won't work if someone else then I kill him. That's why Lord Vaatu refused to let me use this power, as a general, I was forced to stand at his side all the time, and he wasn't going to lost time tracking down a hateful human.""

"One last question, what is the purpose of this spirit ? And why is there a portal in there ?"

Jaiku took a broom with his mouth and pushed his subordinate in the portal.

"I entered this world via this portal 200 years ago, they forgot to close it and I arranged myself to seal the entrance before the light spirits could come in. Ho, and you'll discover VERY SOON the purpose of the human-created dark spirit !"

Jaiku finally pushed Zalo in the portal, a giant flash of light aveugled the squid as he entered in the human realm.


	2. A demon in Heaven

**Chapter 2.**

The dark spirit weakly started to open his eyes before finally looking around him. It was pretty dark but not as dark as the world he came from. Actually, his eyes adjusted quickly to the darkness around him and the octopus soon started to pick himself up. The room was pretty big since he could fit in but he still couldn't move very much, just enough to avoid being pressed against the walls. He noticed there was a bunch of rocks ahead of him. The octopus merely started to bash the rocks with his tentacles until they were finally out of the way.

And after 400 years in Hell, he saw it. The paradise promised which was pretty much the only reason he didn't fell down and waited for death to come.

The light once again blinded him but he didn't care: During all these years, the only source of light he ever saw was the glow of the green lava and the acid river. It was the sun, Zalo took his time to watch the sun and tried to stare at it as long as it could. He forgot how the star looked, he wanted to see how it looks, to bath in its light once again. Of course, bathing in the sun's light was the little spirit's job, but he wasn't caring about it at all. All he wanted to do was just to be in this light.

"MOVE FATASS ! MOVE !"

Zalo felt something sharp pierce the location where his rear end wad located and jumped will throwing in a high-pitched scream. Massing the location with 4 of his tentacles, he could see that Hu used the sharp end of one of his legs. Understanding his situation, the octopus quickly moved out of the cave and blended in.

The grass felt somewhat strange, it's been a long time since he set tentacle on something else then a dry land. It was a wonderful sensation and the octopus took his time before seeking a jerk. Carefully caressing the wood or the leaves. He felt hypnotized again and it was very easy to see there was _something _after all, the grass betrayed his presence.

"What's that ?"

Zalo turned around and let out a big smile upon seeing two delicious looking humans. They were holding some kind of baton and were dressed in the standard farmer uniform humans dressed in to collect various plants or at least, it looked like that. After 400 years, it obliviously changed.

The farmers began to walk towards him. The octopus raised his tentacles a little (not enough to touch the leaves, at least) and used them to grab the humans after their foolish attempt at approaching. They opened their mouth to scream but a tiny squeeze of the tentacles was enough to silence them permanently. The dark spirit used one of his suckers on his arms to slowly eat the humans. It took only three seconds for the suckers to eat the humans.

"Hahahahahaha ! What a wonderful sensation ! I forgot everything about them, how fragile their little bodies are, how easily their skeleton fall apart and how tasty they are ! I spent CENTURIES hunting for survival, but now, I can hunt just for the fun of it ! I can't wait to eat their kids !"

The octopus cackled but he soon remembered why he was here : He was going to find a cruel human and bring him back to Hu. The octopus straightened a little : He was going to be serious for this one, the tasty humans could wait.

He was still going to take a bit if he found one, however.

Putting his appetite aside, he blended in again and started to walk on a road made of rocks. Nobody could see something was moving and he could safely move out of the way if some human vehicle drew near. Of course, destroying a vehicle was pretty easy for him, but he wanted to be as sneaky as possible for a giant eight-armed beast of malice, which was easier said then done.

Some smoke started to form near him. He was normally wary of smoke since it blinded dark spirit to throw them to their doom, but he felt he might just check it out. The human world was very different from the dark spirit world, after all. There might be a commotion here and he could see these "benders" for himself.

Zalo straightened a little and then went at full speed toward the smoke. In less then 6 seconds, he was standing near the supposed commotion. He was still blended in, of course, the spirit stood still and admired the events.

A man in a dirty suit was standing in front of a fire, which was currently engulfing a house. An old man was currently crouching, observing the spectacle with sadness on his face. Two humans were unconscious and currently standing behind the old man with burn marks on their face.

"What's the commotion, you old dog ?!"

"You .HOUSE !"

The human glared the other man who bravely advanced to confront him. The arsonist's hairs were black and pretty messy with a shaved face. Zalo couldn't figure out the colour of his eyes but he could still see the golden teeth of the human as he smiled, materialising wind in his hands as he advanced toward the brave man who suddenly backed down.

"Yeah, I burned it. Got a problem with it ?"

Silence. The devious human merely smiled more, extinguishing the fire in his hand.

"They scratched a ZHANG-LI painting, it's not the cheapest thing in the world, dammit ! The Old Man will have to pay !"

"We don't have enough money for that !"

"Too bad."

The human lost his devious smile as he put his hands on his pockets. He then turned around to watch the fire. It looked like a mundane thing for him since he looked very, very bored while watching it. Nobody tried to launch a stealth attack on the back of his head. Apparently, he was the only "bender" of this place, the others were weaker or he merely killed all the others benders in this place. Somebody would've tried to extinguish the fire with water already.

"Maybe your daughter will do it."

"What ?!"

"You heard it. But no worries, ha. Even I won't stoop low enough to have a relation without consent, she'll have one week where she'll be able to live with you, old man… One week per year, of course."

He turned back, a smug smile on his face. The young girl looked at him with contempt as the elder man started to raise his head.

"Trying to compensate for the loss of Chaq, I see."

The man who controlled the wind lost his smug smile and glared with intense fury at the old man realised his error and tried to back down.

"Chaq ran away, your daughter won't. I'll make sure of that ! Prepare her, she'll be mine in 6 days ! And don't try to run away, I'll know it. I'll just have to use a few matches and amplify the fire with the wind. Or shred you apart."

He demonstrated this by waving his arm near a barrel, who was promptly destroy by a mini-tornado. The airbender cackled a little before fleeing. The villagers promptly tried to extinguish the house.

"Damn, I thought all airbenders were peaceful !"

"They are ! He just ran away ! You can still see the arrow if you pay close attention."

"They should've strangled him in the crib !"

Zalo smiled, his mission was already over.

Still blended, the octopus slowly progressed toward the mansion. It was way bigger then the other houses in the village. Zalo was very wary about attiring the attention of some light spirits, so instead of destroying the door with brute force, he just went to the back of the house and stealthily punched a window before entering into some kind of cellar. He then used all his stealth ability to go to some stairs, pushing box, stray cats, dog-sized spiders and their webs, skulls and even toys out of they way. However, the octopus found itself trapped when, upon climbing the noisy stairs, he found out the door needed a key to unlock.

Fortunately, every cephalopod in the world knew how to deal with locked doors.

"GWARFHAG !"

Letting out a war cry, Zalo punched the door who flew though the white room and crashed against the wall in a loud "BLAM". The infiltration was a success.

Zalo found himself in a large white room with a red carpet and many paintings of rich humans. It was obliviously the main hall and the airbender's way of feeding his ego by exposing his wealth to everyone. The octopus analysed the carpet, he could probably hide in there.

However, he soon discovered that his perfectly silent movements were heard by a smart human that was currently standing in the stairs, his jaws dropped in horror.

The human looked old and was dressed in a torn uniform, maybe a servant of the airbender, the octopus saw the servant was about to scream in horror, the octopus quickly moved and grabbed the old man with his arms and then wondered how to silently dispatch him. He heard about how neck snaps are effective but the human was so tiny, he couldn't figure out where the neck was.

Using his superior intellect, the octopus quickly threw the servant in the cellar to let the spiders take care of him. He screamed bloody murder and the noise produced by his impact was probably enough to wake up a whole village but at least, he was taken care of.

"What the heck are you doing, Chu. I've seen better servants in the temples and they were all…"

The airbending human stopped in his movements upon seeing that a massive octopus was trying to hide under the red carpet. The… thing loudly cursed upon discovering that some arms could still be seen and left his hiding place to go hide under a chair. It was still a failure and the octopus raised two arms in the direction of the chair upon throwing it in the wall. He was more or less showing it the finger.

The, the octopus saw him.

The thing stood still a moment and then, a large smile appeared on the ugly face of the beast as it quickly ran towards the unfortunate human.

The airbender saw he was in danger and hurriedly ran back toward a window. He heard a deep voice and a loud smash as the octopus smashed a wall with one of his arms.

"RUNNING AWAY, HUH ?! YOU WERE TOUGHER WITH YOUR FELLOW HUMANS !"

The bender turned back and fired two powerful air blasts from his fists. The air blasts successfully hit their target but Zalo just continued to walk forward, his smile growing even more.

"Little human, I've been in a world of pain during 4 centuries, you can throw whatever you like at me. I'll just shrug it off."

"What the HELL are you ?!"

"Nothing special. A dark spirit."

The human's face was full of fear and surprise after hearing that. Zalo stopped to approach him, taking his time to enjoy the horror in his victim's face.

"That's not possible ! You're supposed to be gone ! All of you !"

"Nah, let's say I just took some vacations in Hell. But enough of this, being visible is dangerous for me. They might be already en route."

"Who ?"

The dark spirit straightened a bit, trembled, and then went at full speed toward the bender who was unable to doge in the cramped space. Both smashed though the window but Zalo grabbed the airbender with one of his arm before he could hit the ground.

"Don't die now, human. Interesting things are coming for you, right now."

The airbender tried to escape but he couldn't escape the grasp of the arm. The dark spirit quickly made his way towards the portal he came from. The human screamed all the while but nobody came to his help. Zalo still placed an arm in his mouth. A wandering light spirit could come to the help of the airbender.

Upon his arrival, Zalo could see that nobody came during his absence. Upon entering, he still smashed the roof to hide the cave again and then turned toward the portal.

"Here boss. A jerk with bending ! He's pretty powerful. You should be pleased."

The butterfly looked at him with contempt.

"I waited ! But enough of this, put him in front of the portal. He won't escape."

Zalo put the human in front of the portal and crawled toward a side of the room. Jaiku started to make strange movements.

"You may want to turn around. It's pretty gory."

"Nah, I've seen my fair share of blood."

"Okay."

"AAAAAGGGHHHHHH ! NNNOOOOO ! PLEASE ! STOP IT ! NNO ! NNNNOOOOO !"

Zalo turned around and pretended he wasn't there while he tried to ignore the painful screams of the bender and the cackles of the butterfly.

"STOP SCRAMING YOU DOPE ! I CAN'T CONCENTRATE !"

"THE PPAAIIINNN ! TTTHHEEE PPAAAIINNN ! PLEASE, LET A BENEVOLENT GOD HELP ME ! ANYONE !"

"Ho god ! I'm not there ! I'm not there !"

The octopus put his arms around his ears and tried to ignore the sounds. After a while, the sounds stopped and the octopus foolishly turned around.

"Holy crap ! Why ?!"

The whole room was covered in gore. Jaiku was smiling in delight at the sight of the remains of the unfortunate bender, who then started to glow purple.

Slowly, the remains transformed into grey masses that converged toward a single point in the middle of the room. Zalo shrieked in an uncannily girly voice and turned around again. The grey masses eventually reunited and the last transformation began.

Glowing in purple energy, the grey mass eventually took the form of a dolphin. The Dolphin in question was purple, with green eyes, sharp teeth and a different size, being bigger then most Dolphins.

The new dark spirit opened its eyes and looked around. One could see surprise and confusion in his eyes as he started to study his body with a growing horror.

"My god… WHAT THE HECK HAVE YOU DONE TO ME ?!"

"I just tore you apart so you could become a better soldier ! Happy ?!"

The Dolphin took inspiration and then unleashed a long scream which started to grew much louder then normal, eventually forming cracks in the otherwise solid rock.

"Hoho ! What's this ?"

"Boss ! We shouldn't let him scream any longer ! People outside may hear him !"

"He's manipulating sound ! Interesting !"

"Boss !"

"Ha ! Hu… Take him down. Again."

The octopus raised four tentacles and smashed the dark spirit with it. The Dolphin fell to the ground, knocked out.

"Good, now put him back in the portal. It will go smoothly if you don't push him roughly !"

Zalo grabbed the Dolphin and gently put him trough the portal before going in himself. The cave fell silent again.


	3. The plan

The Airbender was walking in the court, quietly ignoring the children playing with balls of air around him. He was a bit taller then the other Airbenders of his age and his eyes were thinner. He wore the standard monk attire of his culture and was bald with a blue arrow. There weren't any facial hair on his face. He was studying his surrounding with intense interest, trying his damn best to ignore the other monks. He then managed to find what he was looking for.

It was a female airbender, who was busy reading her book (a small philosophical guide), taking a glance at the children and gently using her own airbending to prevent a kid from harming another. She was far from being ugly but she still wasn't very noticeable. Her hairs were cut in the area of the blue arrow but she still kept her shoulder-length hair in every other part of her head.

The male airbender tried a stealth approach but she immediately noticed him and smiled. He awkwardly returned the smile and sat near her, observing the kids who started to get tired.

"So… you managed to have a chit-chat with master Zenzin ?"

"Yes, I asked him how to deal with someone without harming or killing him."

"He told you to just knock him out, right."

"Of course, it's the first thing we airbenders learnt : Brute force is not everything. We can conjure tornadoes or hurricanes but these are not the best things an Airbender must use. A good airbender master use diplomacy, kindness and calm to overcome his foes."

"Gah."

The male formed a little tornado and used it to scare a kid away, his friend glared at him but he ignored it, being too busy preparing a speech to observe her. He then silently turned towards her and took her hands, watching her.

"Diplomacy and stuff won't help forever. Why are we even learning killing techniques if we can't use them ?"

"They show us how horrifying they are. Remember this ragdoll you torn to shred with the tornado ? Nobody deserve this. Not even the cruellest firebender."

"Pff. I swear these ideals will kill us all one day. We should let the other benders benefit of our culture."

"He, invading them won't solve the problem."

"I never said "invade", I said… ho, I know. You're going to twist the words."

He turned around and pouted. Cursing herself for the lack of tact she displayed, the female airbender grabbed her fellow monk and kissed him on the right cheek. The children looked with their mouths wide open and older airbenders screamed a bit before making their way toward the couple.

"Huh. Excuse-me, but our traditions prevent us from having such physical contact in the presence of children. So, huh… please."

"Do not worry master Qan. This won't happen again."

Qan smiled and then returned to his book. Chaq turned toward the blushing male airbender and started to leave as he stared at her.

"Meet me in a few hours, OK Qav ? I'll teach you some good airbending moves."

The Dark Spirit opened his eyes and started to analyse the room around him. It was made of stone, with chairs and some closets, all made of stones. He also saw that he was currently on a table, feeling a vicious headache, he raised his hand and discovered a purple fin instead of his normal hand. Pushing a shriek of horror, he stood up and saw the rest of his body. He was a purple dolphin, a purple dolphin that was far bigger then a dolphin should be. Raising his head, he was again struck with horror when he saw what looked like a hideous butterfly head with a human mouth deformed into a strange smile.

"You woke up ? Good, I was tired of your ramblings about airbending and shit."

"What…"

"You should try to adapt a bit to your new body. You won't be able to fight if you don't know how to move your fins."

"Yeah, good joke you dumbass. Where am I ?"

The Dolphin tried to get up but he slipped and fell to the floor. Pushing a shriek of horror yet again, the unfortunate spirit tried his damn best to move but it was useless; he only managed to crawl toward the door.

"Move the tail."

"What ?"

" .Tail. Do like a Dolphin swimming in the ocean or stuff."

Since he was talking to a giant butterfly with glowing wings and a human mouth, the dark spirit figured out insanity was the better choice and he tried to move his tail. Surprisingly, he started to fly easily. The Dolphin observed his surroundings and laughed before trying to smash a chair. The Butterfly's glare managed to calm down Flipper's cousin.

"Using air to fly is a good thing, Am I right ? A firebender would've been screwed in this body… Anyways, may I ask you who the hell is this girl you talked about in your dreams ?"

"I don't concern you. I have many more questions : First, what happened to me ? What is this place ? who the heck are you ? Where the hell do you found CHAIRS ?"

"Well. First. You died, I killed you and transformed your corpse into a dark spirit. It's the dark spirit's world, your race call it "Hell". I am Jaiku, the king of this place in Lord Vaatu's absence and a motherflippin butterfly. And I made these chairs, it took me some times…"

"YOU KILLED ME ?"

"And sewed back your corpse."

Without any warning, the Dolphin slammed his tail in the face of the smiling Butterfly. Jaiku passed trough a thick wall and started to fly to go back in the room. The smile was nowhere to be seen but he was not frowning. His face wasn't harbouring any kind of wound.

"A man or a lesser spirit would've died regardless of his constitution. But, hey, you can do better."

The Dolphin opened his mouth and a ball of purple wind formed in it. Reacting quickly, Jaiku slammed the dark spirit to the ground; destroy the ball of wind and defeating the rebellious spirit. Despite his size , the Dolphin was unable to escape.

"It seems interesting but it would've destroyed this room and it took me years to built it. You attack me without warning and made a hole in my wall. If you weren't so precious, I would've killed you and used your dead body to cover the hole."

No reponse except a gulping coming from Qan. Jaiku continued his speech while staring him down.

"You see. You can use bending, this alone make you special among us. Of course, you're weak for the moment. You can kill mooks but a powerful bender would cause you troubles, for now."

"What ?"

"You'll have to grow stronger if you want to tackle the successor of the human who defeated Lord Vaatu in a straight fight. Fortunately, it seems the transformation empowered your bending. It'll be useful for the whole quest."

Since saying "what" weakly wasn't going to give him solutions at all. Qan instead thanked all the gods he knew when the butterfly let him go.

"The quest ?"

"Yes, you have a gigantic potential thanks to the bending. I'm just going to give you one little task and then probably find a new body for you to inhabit."

"I bet it's so hard, I'll wish you killed me for good instead of transforming me."

"Yes, you must kill the avatar."

Qan stopped and then watched his fellow dark spirit for a moment. They stared at each other for three minutes. One was analysing the words of Jaiku and was thinking about all kind of appellations to him. He finally settled to something he hoped won't offense the way more powerful dark spirit.

"What."

"Ho. I excepted a more panicked reaction. Well. I want to avenge Lord Vaatu, who is trapped in the Tree of Time by Wan, the first avatar."

"You can say he's the only Wa…"

Jaiku punched Qan.

"HO CRAP ! Well, too bad for you but the Avatar is really too strong. If she enter the Avatar State, there won't be any traces left of me."

"Then, prevent him from entering the Avatar State."

"Yeah, that's funny. I'm not strong enough to damage her in his normal form. What are you excepting me to do, use my Dolphin cute stare to murder her with cuteness ?"

"No. I'll explain later. ZALO !"

"Yes ?"

"COME HERE, YOU EIGHT-ARMED IDIOT !"

Qan screamed and hide in panic behind Jaiku as Zalo opened the door. It took only one second for the octopus to see the cowering Dolphin.

"Ho, you're awake ?"

"YES. AND I WANT REVENGE AGAINST YOU, STUPID CEPHALOPOD !"

"CALM THE FUCK DOWN."

Jaiku restrained Qan who was going to assault the confused Octopus. The Butterfly launched the Dolphin toward a chair and then offered one to Zalo, whose sheer weight destroyed the unfortunate chair when his body made contact with it.

"So. You two are going to take down the Avatar."

"What."

"But don't worry, you're not going to do it without some tips ! And I'm going to give you some helps, boys ! Listen to your elder and everything will go well !"

Qan glared at the oblivious Zalo but still listened, not wanting his new life to be threw away so soon.

"The Avatar State is powerful enough to overpower everything that stands in the way of the user. Therefore,you two must kill the Avatar before she can use it ! However, even with Zalo's immense brute strength and Flipper's bending…"

"My name is Qan."

"Okay, and Qan's bending. The Avatar is pretty damn durable and you're going to need more strength to deal the fatal blow quickly ! So, you'll have to go to the human's world and defy the former Generals of Raava, who are tasked with "protecting the humans" or, to be more accurate, assure the Spirit's domination on the humans."

"Spirit's domination ? I thought the light spirits were the good guys."

"In a way, they are. We want to destroy the whole human race and your pitiful planet while they simply want for you to sit down and behave. And they will attack on sight. Negotiations will only give them a opening."

He coughed.

"Wait. A general ? To defeat a general, we'll need way more then two dark spirits."

"Years of peace made them weaker. Also, you'll be able to strengthen yourselves before taking on Xanma."

"Xanma ?"

"The general who is pretty damn close to your village. He's agile and fast but he lack resistance. I'm pretty sure a direct hit from your bending would do some damages. However, you are going to need more energy. He's a general, after all."

"I can give him tips about that."

The Butterfly looked briefly at Zalo and nodded while smiling. It was extremely creepy and both dark spirits shivered in fear.

"But, if we kill generals, the avatar will know about us after a while, right ? One ugly octopus and a handsome dolphin killing right and left…"

"Welp, she'll probably confront the both of you. It'll be easier."

"And if we manage to kill her ?"

"Assuming you manage to do it, Zalo. The spirit won't have much defences against the dark spirit and we'll be able to invade the human world en masse. You see, the avatar sealed the portals leading to this world in the human realm. We can't launch a massive attack with just one portal, you'll need to reopen the portals while travelling the world."

"But… the avatar spirit is reincarnated, right ?"

"We'll kill the baby !"

"What ?"

The Dolphin looked dumbfounded at Jaiku who merely glared at him.

"Yeah. That him or us. I'll let someone else do it if you don't want."

"But… killing a baby…"

"Case closed. We'll think of this if the Avatar die."

Qav gulped. Despite his jerkish behaviour, killing babies was way too depraved even for him. He knew that the baby would eventually become a menace for him but he couldn't bring himself to such a thing.

"Why don't you just kill the avatar yourself, boss ?"

"I can't, my dear Zalo. I would be immediately busted. You two are mook-level for now. They don't know about the bending and stuff and you can possess humans, unlike me."

"Possess ?"

"Taking control of a human body. Generals can't do it because their strength tear apart the body after a minute. You and I will be able to use this ability for some time and by the time we'll be strong enough to tear apart the body in a minute… We'll be chasing **them.**"

"Understood, rookie ? Kill the generals, open the portals, kill the avatar and let darkness rise again ! Hell, we'll be probably able to free master Vaatu if we spare the avatar and let her open the damn tree."

Qav glared at the two, being still hesitant and eventually shook his head in approval. Jaiku laughed a bit before opening the door leading to the portal.

"When you'll cross this portal, I won't be able to contact you again. You'll be on your own in a world full of enemies. For now, just go toward the general."

"Understood."

"Yeah."

The two dark spirits crossed the portal and closed their eyes.


End file.
